Visualizing History: Modeling in the Eternal City

Abstract

Using Rome as its case study, this article explores the interrelationship between modeling, maps, representation, and digital reconstruction. Discussions of digital cultural heritage often devolve into questions surrounding realism and visual seduction. While worthy topics for serious thought, such a line of inquiry overlooks the fundamental strength of reconstructing in the digital world: the freedom to create models and bend representational boundaries. Reconstructions and endeavors that attempt to represent the past require design within constraints. Similar to the design of two‐dimensional maps, the creation of a three‐dimensional model demands the same choices of symbology. The task is not to represent every aspect of what might have been; rather it is to use representational techniques rooted in a geographic coordinate system to highlight only the most important information for the task at hand—to use design techniques to reduce the complexity of the ontological reality to create a working tinker‐toy model with which and within which one can experiment.